When we arrived at Dunedin, Dad and Mom told us that we got to go to see Blue Penguins. I got very excited because I have never seen Penguins that are not in a zoo, and I might not see them outside a zoo again. We would get to see blue penguins – the smallest penguins on earth!
The Peninsula that we went to was called the Otago Peninsula. So we went on a 1 hour drive up to the Peninsula. When we got there, we had a 20 minute talk about the penguins. Our guides, James and London, told us there are two places to stand in front and center where you could see the penguins get out of the water better or on the left where they would walk up, and they would be right next to you. We chose the left side.
Then London told us why the Penguins need to come back on to land a little after sunset. It is because seals and sealions can eat them, but the seals and sealions can’t see the Penguins at night because it is too dark. I thought it was interesting that, if the seals or sealions did catch the penguins, they would not taste very good because penguins have a lot of feathers, so it would be like eating a pillow with a couple chicken nuggets in it.
Penguins want to eat extra food during this time of year because they are not going to be able to go in the water for the next couple weeks. This is because they will be moulting which means they will be losing their feathers and growing new ones. When they are losing feathers, they can’t go in the water because they would get very cold and get hypothermia and possibly die. So, right now they are swimming and eating extra fish so that later they won’t get hungry.
Another thing they told us is that the penguins are blue because when they dive in the water, the birds flying above are looking for them, but because they have a blue back it blends in with the ocean. And if the sharks want to eat them, they would see their white stomachs which would look like the sun, so none of the penguins would get hurt.
We also learned about a type of bird called an albatross which is a really big bird. It has 11.2 ft wingspan which is more than double the size of me. We learned some facts about them. One was that they have the largest wingspan of any bird, also they can fly several miles in just a single flap of their wings.
They also taught us about the history of the Māori people in this area. They said they think they might have come all the way from Taiwan and China then through Polynesia. The Māori people knew which way to go by using the stars. So they find a star pointing the same direction of the land and in the next few days if the same star passes over you no matter what way it passes you, you are headed in the right direction.
After we learned everything about the penguins and albatross, we headed down to the beach where there were thousands of stairs to be climbed. Once we finished all the stairs, we got to the bottom, and we stood in the freezing cold for about 20 minutes.
We saw albatross high in the air but no other birds…
Until a small penguin finally waddled out of the ocean, and it looked so cute! At first there was only one penguin that slowly waddled up some rocks and over sand.
Me and mom really thought they were so cute when they walk on the sand. It made me feel so happy, but I was so cold!
After about 1 hour outside, we were so cold that we decided to go home but then London yelled at us right when we were leaving and said that about 10 penguins just arrived from the ocean! So we rushed back to the deck we were standing on and saw the penguins again.
Then, about 2 minutes later, a bunch more penguins came out and went into their homes for the night.
And then we got way too cold so we left. Luckily nobody yelled out “10 more penguins just arrived.” We loved it!!!!
--Poppy
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